Hello, My Name Is Dave
Hello, My Name Is Dave
Q&A With Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray
IE: Talk about milestones: Vans has actually made official Iron Maiden skate shoes, featuring the “Killers” and “Trooper” Eddie artwork by Derek Riggs.
Dave Murray: I know! I’ve seen ’em walking around at our shows. Sometimes by themselves! But it’s something that teenagers tend to like, especially if they’re Iron Maiden fans, as well.
IE: So your fanbase is getting younger?
DM: Yeah, that tends to be the case. And we’ve experienced this in the last few years, especially since we just came back from South America, and it’s all teenagers at our shows down there. And we’re talking young, like 14. And they come up to us, and they’ve got all the albums, some of these youngsters, and they’re even following what we’ve done early on, in the ’80s. And maybe it’s our icon, the Eddie character — maybe they’ve latched on to Eddie and started following us. Because we really don’t get that much radio play, so a lot of this comes from word-of-mouth, especially now with the Internet. I think people have suddenly just caught on to us.
IE: Well, you guys almost single-handedly sped metal up in the late ’70s, early ’80s. And you took your cues from punk rock.
DM: Yeah. In fact, our influences were more of the heavy rock stuff, like Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, and early Genesis. It was that era, that also gave us stuff like T. Rex and David Bowie. And obviously, the Sex Pistols came in and went wallop with that album Never Mind The Bollocks, and that kinda broke down a lot of the barriers. And we were playing clubs at the time, and we played the music fast anyway, just for adrenaline and energy, but we tried to make songs more melodic and orchestrated. But I loved the punk stuff, the stuff that was all raw and edgy and in-your-face. And that was the springboard there, with the Pistols, for the new wave of British heavy metal, with Saxon and Krokus and other bands that came out of that era. And I have fond memories of that time, ’cause it was like breaking new ground and everything felt fresh. And we were just there at the right time, in the right place, when there was a gap, or hole, in the hard rock area. And we just happened to be out playing gigs when fans started to get excited about music again, and they latched on to all these new bands like us who were coming through. And in some ways, it’s come full circle now, because it’s coming back into fashion now, hard rock.
IE: You even have your own jet now — Ed Force One — which your frontman Bruce Dickinson gets to pilot. You’ve gotta look at Eddie, the jet, the Vans, the new Somewhere Back In Time best-of-the-’80s album and go “Whoa!”
DM: Oh I know, I know! It’s unbelievable, really, when I think about how far it’s come. And it’s kinda gone from strength to strength, and our music is about as popular now as it ever has been. But obviously, it’s the fans that keep us there, so we’re very concerned with quality. We just try to put on the best shows we can and make the best albums we can, and we’ve just been really lucky that the fans have kept us around. We’re survivors, we’re still doing it and having a blast. It’s been fantastic, and I really wouldn’t change a thing.
Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray and band play Allstate Arena in Rosemont on June 11th. Q&A by Tom Lanham.
